NUMBER PLATES: Anyone who has bought a new car in recent weeks and is waiting to take delivery would be well advised to be patient. Their prized new possession may not be handed over because of a shortage of... number plates.
The Attica Region estimates that its remaining 5,000 to 6,000 car number plates will last for one week, or two at most. The picture is even worse for motorbikes, with fewer than 300 plates left. Serious shortages have already emerged in Crete and Thrace, according to the SEAA.
Astonishingly, this is the third time this year the situation has arisen!
It began with the Transport Ministry’s tender, which was blocked by legal flaws and appeals. An emergency purchase of 120,000 pairs followed. Those plates were almost exhausted by August, when new car registrations fell 37%.
The ministry had requested another emergency purchase on 21 July, but it was not until mid-September that a contract was awarded for a further 60,000 pairs — half as many as before.
With market demand estimated at about 25,000 pairs a month, a fresh shortage was predictable. The 60,000 pairs would last less than two and a half months, even without taking any existing stocks into account.
No... Solomonic wisdom was needed. A simple division was enough.
As if that were not enough, on 11 November, parts of the new tender for car, motorbike and trailer plates were cancelled in compliance with a decision by the Hellenic Single Public Procurement Authority.
NUMBER PLATES II: There is also a financial dimension that makes the whole affair even more absurd.
Each pair of car number plates costs the state €4.46 including VAT. The entire September contract, for cars and motorbikes, came to €348,440.
Meanwhile, according to estimates presented on SKAI, from 15 November 6,000 to 7,000 vehicles a week risk being held up.
Assuming an average value of €25,000, that means around €160 million worth of cars could be delayed each week. In other words, the entire cost of the emergency purchase amounts to just 0.2% of that sum.
In short, here we have a tin-pot state holding up the market over an issue that, by comparison, amounts to small change!
At the same time, sources at the Transport Ministry, headed by Christos Dimas, insist there is no risk of number plates running out, citing official updates from the regions.
That is despite the country’s largest region warning that its stocks will last for just one to two weeks!
The permanent solution, we understand, involves a digital platform and an open register of manufacturers, ending reliance on tenders. The approach is sound, but it did not reach the... road in time.
The aim is for the platform to be up and running on 15 December. But the law first requires a joint decision by three ministers, a public invitation, registration of manufacturers against bank guarantees and their connection to the system.
With only a few weeks left before the plates run out, it seems rather... unlikely that all this will be completed in time.
Let’s hope we are proved wrong...
NEW DEMOCRACY: There is still much discussion about the 25% electoral threshold set by Kyriakos Mitsotakis, with an eye to what comes next for the country and for New Democracy.
He repeated the point in his public remarks the day before yesterday, prompting comment from two senior figures in the party:
“He was right to say it, but he won’t get 25%. He said it to put an end to the discussion about what you would do and what comes next. It was an unusual answer by Greek political standards, but it was an honest and candid one”, said Deputy Prime Minister and New Democracy deputy leader Kostis Hatzidakis. Dora Bakoyannis struck a similar note:
“I absolutely believe that. But I don’t think he’ll get less than 25%, so I feel he is saying it from a position of safety. He isn’t clinging to his chair… Mitsotakis is doing a job and believes he is doing it well, with all its weaknesses and mistakes and so on, but he believes he is doing it well. He believes the Greeks will weigh up whether they want Androulakis as prime minister — and I believe PASOK will be the second-largest party”, she said, adding that ELAS would finish third in the final stretch.
“Tsipras’s rebranding has failed so badly that he is going back to factory settings now to be more believable… Now that he is returning to the old Tsipras, he’ll tell us all the various nice things he likes to say. I believe PASOK will be the second-largest party”, she repeated, drawing particular comment.
KIKILIAS: The large number of voters who backed New Democracy in 2023 but later drifted away is a major headache for both the Maximos Mansion and the party headquarters in Piraeus. Their big challenge is to bring those voters back into the fold and rebuild trust between the two sides.
Shipping and Island Policy Minister Vassilis Kikilias underlined that need at a party event in Laconia.
“We can and must bring back people who are disappointed, upset and hurt, and who may have moved a little further away, to the right or the left. We must respect their problems and grievances, help them and reunite.
Anyone who forgets the people, society and ordinary citizens — those who work hard to make ends meet and deal with the realities of everyday life — cannot have a political future. I will continue tirelessly and without pause to fight for these people and for the values and principles of our party, which have remained unchanged and can be a great legacy for the future”, Mr Kikilias said, criticising the rhetoric and language used by New Democracy figures that fuel toxicity.
Some within New Democracy saw the speech — a mini ideological platform — as making him another potential successor to Kyriakos Mitsotakis, when he decides to step down.
ALTER EGO MEDIA: Alter Ego Media attracted strong interest from institutional investors at the Euronext Athens Midcap conference on Tuesday, recording the highest number of investor meetings among the participating companies.
During those meetings, management presented its strategic plan for the next three years and reaffirmed its 2026 guidance, which calls for a 25% increase in EBITDA.
Investors were particularly interested in the outlook for the following two years. Management said that investments completed as early as the first half of 2026 had laid the foundations for the group to double its consolidated profitability by the end of 2028.
Analysts believe strong interest from institutional investors, combined with significant scope to increase profitability, creates the conditions for Alter Ego Media’s investment value to be recognised and gradually reflected in the group’s market valuation.
KRI KRI: The listed company closed at a new record high yesterday, at €37.70, up 2.72%.
Its market capitalisation rose to €1.25 billion. A total of 57,394 shares changed hands during the session, with turnover of €2.1 million.
The share has almost doubled in a year, gaining 96.8%, from €18.22 twelve months ago. It is up 50.8% over six months and 30.5% over three.
The rise has continued over the past month, with the share up 12.9%. In the past week alone it gained 6.2%, on cumulative turnover of €12.3 million.
ALPHA TRUST ANDROMEDA: The share trades at a discount of more than 20% to net asset value, according to an update from the listed company based on figures as at 10 November.
The company told the stock exchange that its net asset value stood at €10.52, while the share closed at €8.34, up a marginal 0.24%.
Meanwhile, Jumbo remained the investment company’s top bet among Euronext Athens-listed shares in October, accounting for 6.97% of its total equity portfolio.
It was followed by Quest (5.61%), Real Consulting (4.55%), Profile (4.4%), Austriacard (4.04%), Thrace Plastics (3.5%), Intelife (3.48%), Performance Technologies (3.2%), Titan (3.02%) and Papoutsanis (2.93%).
AUTOHELLAS: Autohellas reported lower profitability year on year in the third quarter.
With revenue broadly flat at €284.3 million, adjusted EBITDA fell 2.5% year on year to €55.35 million, while pre-tax profit was down 5.1% at €47.28 million. The figures reflect both the sales mix and a number of individual factors.
International operations recorded an 8.3% year-on-year increase in revenue, but this did not translate into higher profitability. By contrast, the car trading segment saw sales fall 7.1% to €112.99 million and profitability decline. The leasing business increased sales by 3.2%, but its profitability was adversely affected by shrinking margins on used cars.
These cars were bought at high prices in 2022-23, when availability was limited because of the pandemic-related disruption to supply chains.
OTE: OTE chief executive Kostas Nebis will receive gross fixed pay of €500,000 a year (€35,715 x 14 months) from 1 July 2027 for a three-year term.
This is set out in the renewed independent services agreement for Mr Nebis’s new term, which will be submitted to shareholders for approval at the 2027 annual general meeting.
The increase in fixed pay is modest (€500,000, up from €450,000 under the current agreement), compared with the increases received over the past three years by CEOs of banks and other large- and mid-cap companies.
In addition to fixed pay, OTE’s CEO receives bonuses under the long-term incentive schemes and the OTE shares award plan.
Grant Thornton, which assessed whether the terms of the agreement were fair and reasonable for OTE shareholders, estimates that Mr Nebis’s performance-related variable pay will amount to €875,000, based on his participation rates in the aforementioned incentive schemes.
OPTIMA: According to analysts, the standout feature of Optima Bank’s strong third-quarter results was a 19-basis-point increase in its CET1 ratio to 12.02%.
For the second consecutive quarter, organic capital generation exceeded the capital requirements created by credit expansion during the period (an increase in risk-weighted assets), the provision for dividend distribution and the payment of the AT1 coupon, which was added in the third quarter.
The bank has managed to fund its growth from its own resources, helping drive the sharp rise in its valuation over August and September and putting to rest concerns about a capital increase.
Otherwise, third-quarter results were slightly better than market expectations, thanks to a wider net interest margin (3.34%) and a 10% quarter-on-quarter increase in net interest income to €74.2 million.
The cost-to-income ratio fell below 21%, while asset quality remained high, with the NPE ratio unchanged at 1.62% and impairment provisions at €6.6 million, down from €8 million in Q2. Credit expansion in the first nine months reached €1 billion.
OPTIMA II: The transaction for Optima to acquire a majority stake of at least 67% in Euroxx is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2027, the bank’s management said yesterday, causing a stir in the market.
This column had warned of the delay some time ago, contrary to the prevailing view then that the transaction would be completed in the second half of this year.
Given that the financial and legal due diligence has been completed smoothly, the question is whether other difficulties have emerged that are behind the delay, and whether all parties remain committed to what was agreed on the future of the now-integrated group.
In other words, a crack of doubt has suddenly appeared over whether the transaction will be completed...
HELLENIQ ENERGY: Eurobank Equities expects a sharp rise in Helleniq Energy’s financial results in the third quarter of 2026, ahead of the results announcement today after the market closes.
The broker expects adjusted EBITDA to reach €887 million, up 143% year on year. For the first nine months, operating profit is expected to reach €1.62 billion, an increase of 112%, with third-quarter performance set to exceed that of the first half.
Refining will be the key driver, with the company’s realised refining margin estimated at $38.4 a barrel, compared with $17.2 in the same period of 2025. This improvement is expected to more than offset slightly lower production capacity. As a result, refining EBITDA is forecast to almost triple to €783 million, representing about 88% of total profitability.
Adjusted net profit is estimated at €606 million, up 227%, while reported net profit is forecast at €566 million, after losses of around €50 million linked to inventories and CO₂ allowances.
For the fourth quarter, Eurobank Equities expects margins to normalise from the exceptional levels seen in the third quarter, although diesel and jet fuel margins remain supportive. Investors will focus on the outlook for margins, feedstock and transport costs, the conversion of profits into cash flow, and the shareholder distribution policy.